Oration honouring Lloyd Norman Axworthy

Friday, May 29, 10 a.m.

Once upon a time a young high school student found that his future
as a football player was threatened by his poor academic standing.
A kind teacher offered him a magic solution: attend and write a
report on a public lecture and your football eligibility will be
restored. And so it was that the high school jock went to the
lecture. Before the clock struck 12 that night, Lloyd Axworthy was
transformed from a football player into a political activist. The
speech by Lester B. Pearson, then minister of External Affairs,
later Nobel Laureate and Prime Minister, so entranced Axworthy,
that it shaped his career which has been distinguished by a
commitment to political development, human rights and active
engagement in the political process.

His love affair with politics was passionate and involved. Lloyd
Axworthy studied politics in university, but he practiced political
action. More than once, he shunned personal risk as he did when he
marched for civil rights in the southern United States. As a young
man, the idealistic Axworthy dreamed of a career in External
Affairs, but this time, there was no fairy god person to help him
pass the Foreign Affairs exam. Never one to dwell on failure, he
refocused his efforts on an academic career. Over the next few
years, he built a political base of support in Winnipeg, serving
first as a provincial legislator and later as a Member of
Parliament. His talents were recognized by Prime Minister Trudeau,
who invited the young parliamentarian to join his cabinet. Axworthy
retained his seat in Parliament during the “Mulroney
years” and rejoined cabinet when Jean Chretien became prime
minister. Three years later, a fortuitous cabinet shuffle propelled
Axworthy to Foreign Affairs, the top position in the very
department that eluded him earlier in life.

Minister Axworthy insisted that governments had roles and
responsibilities for human security that transcend, if not
supersede, traditional governmental involvement with territorial
security. While Dr. Axworthy headed Foreign Affairs, Canada hosted
an international convention on landmines. Convention delegates
hoped to chart a road map that some day, might lead to global
limitations on the use of anti-personnel landmines. Landmines are
insidious. Although devised many centuries ago, the recent
deployment of millions of landmines in the killing fields of
Cambodia and the former Yugoslavia focused international outrage as
people realized that tens of thousands of innocent men, women and
children continued to lose lives and limbs in the years and decades
following armed hostilities.

As the convention drew to a close, Dr. Axworthy shocked delegates
by calling for an outright proposal to ban landmines. He dared the
delegates to return to Canada in a year’s time for a
treaty-signing conference. Axworthy’s ‘put your money
where your mouth is’ challenge paid off. In about a
year’s time, the bold diplomatic approach produced a
“peoples’ treaty” to which most countries are
signatories. For the first time ever, a widely used military method
was banned. Military expediency was outweighed by the enormity of
human suffering.

Lloyd Axworthy’s assertive challenge evoked a fundamental
shift in the workings of international relations. The “Ottawa
Process” is a fast-track and goal oriented method by which
governments work with non-governmental organizations in a
multi-faceted approach to problem solving. Only those governments
who “buy in” to finding a solution can participate, and
direct voting replaces consensus. State sovereignty defers to human
security.

Lloyd Axworthy was one of a small handful of enlightened statesmen
around the world who nurtured the neo-idealism of the 1990’s.
He promoted human security through many initiatives. His leadership
was key in establishing the International Criminal Court and the
adoption of rules against the use of child soldiers. Through his
guidance on these initiatives, Canada was an international leader
in promoting individual security by protecting innocent civilians
from acts of violence often perpetrated by their own
governments.

Who can know what would have happened had Lloyd Axworthy been an
honour’s student in high school? Would he have attended
Pearson’s inspiring talk? What might the young Axworthy have
achieved as a career diplomat had he passed the exam at External
Affairs? No one will ever know, and Lloyd Axworthy continues to
look forward rather than back. As minister of External Affairs, he
knew that the time for humanitarian action was at hand and he
seized the day for our benefit and the benefit of our children and
our children’s children. Simply put, the world is a far
better place because of Lloyd Axworthy.
Chancellor, for the degree of doctor of laws, honoris causa, I present the
outstanding humanitarian, Lloyd Norman Axworthy.